FT (Fire Topic) >> Fire Crews Fight Blaze In Chemical Plant - From Cambridge News/Royston UK

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Friday, February 18, 2000

Fire crews fight blaze in chemical plant

A PLANT inside the Johnson Matthey compound in Royston had to be evacuated after fire broke out inside a length of pipe carrying chemicals yesterday.

It is believed to have been caused by an air leak which overheated inside a section of the pipe work, leading to the pipe's lagging catching fire in a homogeneous catalyst plant.

Steve Merry, Royston's leading firefighter, whose crew attended the incident at York Road, around 12.30pm, along with tenders from Buntingford and Baldock, said: "In view of the nature of work that is carried out at the factory, our main concern was to ensure the fire did not spread to other areas.

"So we had to cool down the three-metre length of pipe and dismantle it."

It took firefighters wearing breathing apparatus close to two hours to be "assured the fire had not spread" through the rest of the pipe-work.

Mr Merry added: "Being a vacuum system it can draw the fire from within the system. Besides, it involved methylated spirits which is quite a volatile product.

"But the company put all its safety measures into practice, which stood up to the test."

A spokesman for Johnson Matthey said: "There were no injuries, no environmental impact or immediate danger to the public and very little damage was caused to the plant.

"A full investigation is being carried out."

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), February 19, 2000


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